I, Claudius by Robert Graves (1994, Unabridged, Audio Cassette)

I Claudius is a masterpiece of historical literature - the gold standard by which all modern historical novels are judged. If you loved the 1976 miniseries, I highly recommend the book. I've you've never seen the miniseries, I recommend watching it first before reading this book.

This book chronicles the reign of the first three Roman Emperors: Augustus, Tiberius and Caligula, ending at the point where Caligula is assassinated and Caligula's uncle Claudius, fearing that he will be assassinated as well, is found by some soldiers cowering behind some drapes. Instead of assassinating Claudius, the soldiers proclaim him Emperor. The account of Claudius' reign is contained in the next book: Claudius the God. The second book is every bit as good as the first.

Robert Grave's stated purpose in writing I Claudius was to reconcile the ancient sources. Half of the ancient sources treat Claudius as a monstrous blithering idiot who lucked his way onto the throne to Rome's eternal shame. Half of the ancient sources treat Claudius as a bookish historian who eventually was Augustus' only male descendant, because he was so physically infirmed that nobody had ever bothered to kill him.

The book is written in the form of an autobiography, secretly prepared and buried for 1,900 years until it can be read by a new generation. As such, the book is written from the perspective of "Claudius". Many incidents and anecdotes which make sense to him are misunderstood by others. I Claudius is sometimes knocked for being too sympathetic to Claudius, but it should be understood that the book is written as though it came from Claudius, who is naturally sympathetic to himself.

There's a scene in the book I Claudius which illustrates perfectly what Robert Graves is attempting to accomplish. Claudius meets two famous historians who have very different opinions on how history should be written. One is all for names, dates, facts. He does not believe that any dialogue should be placed into the mouth of a historical figure unless it is historically documented that the person said that exact thing. The other historian thinks that history should be written with a literary character - a pre-battle speech might be invented by the historian and placed into the mouth of his subject so long as it remains true to the character and is the sort of thing that person is likely to have said.

It's not as apparent from the miniseries, but in the book it's abundantly clear - Robert Graves is attempting to do both styles of historical writing. He makes Claudius from the "names dates facts" school, and so any event which Claudius did not personally witness contains just the fact of what happened with no embelleshment or dialogue. However, any event which "Claudius" personally witnessed, he makes come alive with dialogue and dramatic detail.

At any rate, this is one of the greatest historical novels ever written. At the time it was written, it was bar-none the greatest novel that had ever been written about ancient Rome. It was equalled and possibly slightly surpassed by its sequel: Claudius The God. The Claudius series is rivalled only by Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome Series (The First Man In Rome, The Grass Crown, Fortune's Favorites, Caesar's Women, Caesar, The October Horse). If one reads the McCullough books in order, followed by the Robert Graves Claudius books, one will have had a blow-by-blow account of the entire history of Rome for more than 150 years